Tensions have gradually eased in Senegal, where clashes have left 16 people dead since last Thursday when opposition figure Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison.
The presence of security forces decreased slightly on Sunday in the capital Dakar, where many shops remain closed, and a number of neighborhoods that witnessed violence last Thursday and Friday calmed down.
On Sunday, the Interior Ministry spoke of a "clear decline in hotbeds of tension and arrests".
It said many activities resumed on Saturday evening and Sunday morning as the ban on motorcycles ended.
Senegalese still fear the repercussions of the possible arrest of Sonko, the 2024 presidential candidate, while his supporters and those of President Macky Sall accuse each other of causing violence and casualties.
The government decided to "temporarily" cut off internet service to mobile phones and said it had cut off access to mobile internet services in certain areas due to deadly riots in which messages inciting "hatred and vandalism" spread online.
Accusations of repression
For its part, Sonko Bastiv's party condemned in a statement Sunday the "bloody repression of the defense and security forces", accusing the authority of resorting to "special militias" in order to "suppress" civilians.
The party also reported the deaths of 19 protesters and urged Senegalese to "defend themselves by all means and to protest".
For its part, the government condemned "acts of sabotage and banditry", attributing them to Sonko's supporters backed by "mysterious forces" and "foreigners" who came to "destabilize the country" and "plunge it into chaos", it said.
It also confirmed that some of the demonstrators were armed, while the interior minister announced on Saturday that about 500 people had been arrested.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement issued on Sunday that it had treated 357 injured protesters, including a pregnant woman, and 36 members of the defense and security forces since the unrest began, noting that 78 were seriously injured and were taken to health facilities to receive the necessary aid.